TEACHING
Politics is stressful. My students help me cope.
Fall 2024
Politics in the US (Govt 110)
Government 110 offers a broad introduction to U.S. politics, examining the structure of the national government as well as the methods by which citizens influence it. Students will learn about the following specific topics: the nation's founding; federalism and the separation of powers; the principal institutions of the U.S. government, including the Presidency, federal bureaucracy, Congress, and Judiciary; civil rights and civil liberties; and democratic politics, including elections, political parties, public opinion, and media. The course will proceed with an eye to current events, particularly recent and upcoming elections.
Fall 2022
Research Design (Govt 615)
This seminar offers an introduction to epistemology and empirical research design. It is not a course on data analysis; it focuses on how to create, gather, and find data that are worth analyzing. The course begins with an introduction to philosophy of science and social scientific inquiry. This is followed by a grand tour of common empirical research designs, including qualitative interview, observation, survey, experiment, comparative case study, historical, and mixed-method approaches. Students will read general methodological advice regard how to execute a particular approach as well as examples of research studies employing each approach. The final portion of the course focuses on ethics and values in the social sciences. Students will be asked to write several papers and actively participate in class discussions and activities throughout the semester. At the conclusion of the course, students will complete an original research design on a topic, and using an approach, of their choosing.
Spring 2022
Inequality in the US (Complex Problems course)
Economic and associated social and political inequalities have always been a part of human societies, although their extremity, character, and relationship vary over time and from place to place. Unfortunately, Americans today are living through a period of acute inequalities, despite the U.S. ideal of equality. What causes socioeconomic inequality? How is it manifested? Why do we tolerate it? And, how might we remedy it? These are some of the questions we will seek to answer in this interdisciplinary course. We will read and discuss some of the best scholarship on these topics from Economics, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology. Readings will be supplemented with short videos by the authors of many of these works. Student learning will be assessed via class participation, essay exams, and a scaffolded research project.
Fall 2021
Proseminar in American Politics (PhD seminar)
This course will introduce you to the field of U.S. politics and serve as preparation for the U.S. politics field exam, covering canonical works with an eye toward recent developments. While focused on the politics of just one nation, the field of U.S. politics has been an incubator of novel theorizing and methodologies, many of which have been taken up by scholars across the field of Political Science. Thus, you should understand this course not only as offering a deep understanding of U.S. government and politics but also as providing insight into the broader field. We will cover a wide range of topics in the study of U.S. politics. We begin with American political culture and traditions, major political institutions, and federalism and state and local politics; we then cover political parties, interest groups, voter turnout, and elections; we end with the study of public opinion and inequality, including the politics of race and gender and democratic (un)responsiveness. Finally, this course will also help you to develop your scholarly writing skills and ability to identify ways in which you might meaningfully contribute to the field.
Spring 2020
Political Behavior (PhD seminar)
This seminar is an introduction to the subfield of political behavior. The focus is on the U.S.; however, most weeks include an example of research from comparative politics. We begin by studying two phenomena that organize political opinion—political ideology and partisanship—as well as political polarization and related phenomena. We proceed to the micro-foundations of political opinion and action: political values, social identity and intergroup prejudice, emotion, personality, and biopolitics. We conclude the semester by looking at influences outside the individual that shape and/or interact with individuals’ political predispositions—social influences, media effects, and campaign effects.
Spring 2019
Introduction to Political Research (Govt 310)
How do political scientists know what they know? This course will help you answer that question by not only teaching you about how professional researchers go about conducting empirical research but also by guiding you through the completion of an original research project. You will learn the basics of theory building, research design, and statistical analysis and interpretation. You will also become conversant in the statistical software program R. The knowledge you will gain in this course has numerous practical applications: you will better understand social science research studies discussed in other courses; you will be an intelligent consumer of media reports on scientific studies; and, finally, you will have the tools to carry out your own empirical research and analyze data in the future.
Fall 2017
Political Opinion in the U.S. (Govt 496/696)
In a democracy, those who govern are---in theory, at least---beholden to the public's wishes. What does the public want, and why? In this course, students will read works on U.S. political opinion by leading scholars in the field of Political Science. The course will cover debates over voter competence; the causes and effects of partisan identification; the depth and organization of political ideology; key influences on political opinion, including self-interest, values, and social group identification; various aspects of polarization; salient, contemporary inter-group resentments; and attitudes surrounding the topic of economic inequality. It is recommended that students be familiar with basic statistical analysis (especially regression analysis) prior to taking this course.